Two charged in drug bust Down East

CRAWFORD, Maine — A cache of drugs that included cocaine and methadone with a street value of more than $5,000 reportedly was seized by police last week on Route 9 during a drug bust that resulted in two arrests.

Gerald Perry, 48, was charged with unlawful trafficking of scheduled drugs, a Class B crime, and Melissa Cox, 34, was charged with aggravated trafficking of scheduled drugs, a Class A offense. The two are from Baileyville.

First District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh said Tuesday night that if convicted, Perry could serve up to 10 years in prison on the trafficking charge. Cox faces a mandatory minimum of four years in prison and could be sentenced up to 30 years on the Class A trafficking charge, he said.

Perry and Cox were arrested by Washington County Sheriff’s Department officers around 11:30 p.m. Friday. The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Maine State Police assisted in the arrest. Bail for Perry and Cox was set at $25,000 cash each and the two remained in Washington County Jail on Tuesday night.

Deputy Tommy Chambers of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that the cocaine had a street value of around $4,200, while the collection of pills had a street value of several hundred dollars. Police also seized digital scales from inside the car. “In this particular case it was to weigh the cocaine and there was white powder residue on it suspected to be cocaine,” he said.

Acting on an anonymous tip he received just days before the arrest, Chambers said he was told that Perry and Cox were going to transport drugs along Route 9 on Friday night.

The deputy contacted other law enforcement agencies and they waited for the car. The couple was traveling from the Bangor area.

Once the vehicle was stopped, Chambers’ police dog, Liberty, immediately alerted police that there were drugs in the vehicle, Chambers said. “I was obviously pleased at Liberty’s performance,” he said.

Chambers said the arrest worked because of the cooperation of police agencies.

“We are just fortunate at this point because we do hear rumblings of drug activity. We are not at all times in the immediate area to do something about it, but in this particular case we were fortunate to have other police units available and we had enough time to be productive and arrest them,” he said.

He said the couple cooperated.

Chambers said that Cox’s charge was elevated to aggravated trafficking because of a prior arrest.

In February 2002, Cox, who was 26 at the time, was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation for unlawful trafficking in OxyContin. Cox sold the drug to a cooperating individual in Baileyville on April 13, 2001, according to an earlier Bangor Daily News story.